Clothes-line apparatus.



No. 743,001. PATENTED Noms, 190s.

J. L. KNIGHT'aL H. W. ROBY.

CLOTHES LINE APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 25. 1902. N0 MODEL.

TH: MORRIS Pqftns co.. PHomLm-lo., wAsmNm'on, n. n

UNITED STATES Patented November 3, 1903.

APATENT OFFICE.

JONATHAN L. KNIGHT AND HENRY W. ROBY, OF TOPEKA, KANSAS; SAID KNIGHT ASSIGNOR TO SAID ROBY.

CLOTH ES-LINE APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 743,001, dated November 3, 1903.

Application filed July 25, 1902.

T0 a/ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, JONATHAN L. KNIGHT and HENRY W. ROBY, citizens of the United States, residing at Topeka, in the county of Shawnee and-State of Kansas, have invented new and useful Improvements in Clothes- Line Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in clothes-line apparatus, and has for its general object to provide an apparatus which while simple, inexpensive, and light in construction is calculated to materially facilitate the putting up, stretching, and fastening of a clothes-line, as well as the taking down and removal of the line indoors or out of the weather, and is also well adapted to withstand the usage to which such devices are ordinarily subjected.

With the foregoing in mind the invention will be fully understood from the following description and claims when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure lis a side elevation of our improved apparatus with all of the parts in their proper operative positions and the reel-frame partly in section; Fig. 2, a front elevation of the same; Fig. 3, an enlarged detail section taken through the reel and reel-frame of the apparatus in the plane indicated by the broken line 3 3 of Fig. l; Fig. 4, an enlarged detail section taken in the plane of the broken line 4 4: of Fig. l and illustrating the manner in which the latch on a support engages the reel-frame to secure the latter in its operative position, and Fig. 5 an enlarged detail section taken in the plane indicated by the broken line 5 5 of Fig. 1 and illustrating the bar for locking the reel to the reel-frame and the slide controlling said bar.

Similar letters of reference designate correspending parts in all of the views of the drawings, referring to which- A is a support, which may be either a post or the side of a building; B, a hook secured to said support; C, a shelf, preferably of sheet metal, also secured to thesupport, but in a plane below the hook and having an upwardly and inwardly inclined iiange a at its outer edge; D, a vertically-slidable latch se- Serial No. 116,983. (No model.)

cured to the support at a point above the shelf C and having a finger-piece a'; E, a block provided with a pulley b and an eye c, the latter to receive the hook B, on which the block is removably hung; F, a reel, upon which a clothes line G is designed to be wound; H, a reel-frame, and I ashaft, through the medium ofwhich the reel is supported and turned in the frame.

The reel-frame H in the present and preferred embodiment of our invention is formed of metallic, preferably steel, straps, and comprises an oblique rectangular section d, au ob lique bail-shaped section e, tixedly connected at its ends to the side bars of the rectangular section and disposed at right angles thereto, and a central Vertical section or bar f, interposed between and ixedly connected to the lower and rear crossbar of the section d and the cross-bar of the section e and provided above the latter with a horizontal portion g,

having an aperture h to receive the latch D, Figs. 1 and 4. In the lapped portions of the sections oZ e are formed coincident apertures 91, designed to receive the shaft I, while in one arm of the section e is an aperture j, Figs. l and 3. This latter aperture is arranged in alinement with an aperture j in a bracket Zo, fixed to the arm of the section e, and is designed for a purpose presently pointed out.

The reel F is preferably made up of circular sheet-metal disks Z Z and a central tubu' lar connection fm interposed between the same, which tubular connection may be of the construction shown in Fig. 3 or any other suitable construction without departing from the scope of ourinvention. As shown in Fig. 3, the tubular connection m comprises an outer tubular section having arms m7 at one end connected tomthe disk Z vand an inner tubular section connected to the disk Z and arranged in the outer section. Said reel is arranged on the shaft I and in the frame H with its disk Z, which has apertures n at intervals between the bracket 7c and the apertured arm of the frame-section e, and it is detachably fixed to the shaft through the medium ofa bolt J, which extends through coincident apertures in its tubular portion and the shaft, Fig. 3, and has an eye p for the connection of the clothes-line, as shown.

K is a spring-bar for locking the reel F to the frame H. This bar has an annular arm q at one end connected to that arm of the frame section in which the aperture j is formed, and it also has an angular branch r at its opposite end designed to pass through the coincident aperturesjj and n of the frame and reel-disk Z, respectively, and an inclined or cam portion s at an intermediate point of its length. Said bar K extends through an aperture t in a lateral arm u, carried by a slide M, which slide is secured on the apertured arm of the frame-section e. Consequently it will be seen that when the slide is moved in the direction indicated by arrow from the position shown in Fig. 3 the branch r of the locking-bar will be drawn out of engagement with the aperturej in bracketlc and the aperture An in reel-disk Z, while when the slide is returned to the position shown in Fig. 3 the locking-bar will of itself return to the position shown, or, if no one of the apertures n in the reel-disk is coincident with the apertures jj', to such position that its branch r bears against the disk l readyto spring into one of the apertures n thereof when the same becomes coincident with the aperturesjj.

`In practice the user of our improved apparatus iirst passes the clothes-line through the block E and then fastens one end of the line to the bolt J. She then turns the reel through the medium of the crank w on shaft I, and thereby winds the line in such manner that the block E is covered by the line as the winding progresses. When the winding of the line on the reel is completed, the user fastensone end of the line to a hook on a fenceor other support in a yard or like place shelf C and the latch D. With this done the.

reel is turned to stretch the line, and when the line is sufficiently taut the slide M is moved in adirection opposite to that indicated by arrow in Fig. 3, so as to enable the bar K to lock the reel to the frame after the manner before described, and thereby hold the line under tension.

We preferto place the line and reel in the manner described above; but, 'i'f desired, the frame H may first be ixed'on the s-upport A and the line drawn off the reel and passed around the hooks on the support and then fastened at its outer end.

When it is desiredto take in the line and remove it indoors or out of the weather, the latch D is raised and the frame H, reel F, and block E removed from the support A, after which the operator walks with the apreel it xes the height of the line independent of the height of the reel, and hence permits of the reel being placed at such a height above the ground that said reel may be conveniently operated by a person standing on the ground.

We have entered into a specific description of the construction and relative arrangement of the several parts embraced in the present and preferred embodiment of ourinvention in order to impart a full, clear, and exact understanding of the same. We do not desire, however, to be understood as confining ourselves to such specific construction and arrangement of parts, as such changes or modifications may be made in practice as fairly fall within the scope of our claims.

Having described our invention, what we claim, and desire toV secure by Letters Patent, 1s-

1. In a clothes-line apparatus, the combi nation of a support, the shelf arranged thereon, and having the upwardly and inwardly inclined flange, a latch mounted on the support above the shelf,a reel-frame having an oblique section provided with a lower bar removably arranged on the shelf within the ange thereof, an oblique section extending upwardly andinwardly from the first-mentioned section, and an upright section connecting the cross-bars of the oblique sections and provided with a keeper adapted for the engagement of the latch, and a reel carried in the said frame.

2. In a clothes-line apparatus, the combination of a support, a shelf arranged thereon and having an upwardly and inwardly extending flange, a vertically-sliding latch secured on the support above the shelf, the reelframe comprising the oblique, rectangular section the lower bar of which is removably arranged on the shelf within the flange thereof, the bail-shaped section disposed at an angle to and extending inwardly and upwardly from the side bars of the rectangular section, and the upright section connecting the lower cross-bar of the rectangular section and the cross-bar of the bail-shaped section, and having an upper horizontal portion provided with an aperture adapted to receive the latch, and a reel carried in the said frame.

3. In a clothes-line apparatus, the combination of a frame having sides one of which is provided with a transverse aperture, a reel IOO IIO

provided with an aperture receiving the locking-bar.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of two subscribing wit- 15 nesses.'

y JGNATHAN L. KNIGHT.

HENRY W. ROBY.

Witnesses:

CHARLES H. LERRIGO, SARA E. ROBY. Y 

